Michael Philip Pulsford

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The respondent, a solicitor admitted in 1980, was convicted at Southampton Magistrates' Court and Crown Court (October 2018, March 2019) of 16 counts of historic indecent assault on boys and girls under 16, receiving a combined custodial sentence of 8 years 8 months and being placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely. He admitted that by virtue of these convictions he breached Principles 2 and 6 of the SRA Principles 2011. The Tribunal, dealing with the matter on the papers by way of agreed outcome, found that public confidence and the reputation of the profession required no lesser sanction than removal from the Roll. He was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £1,300.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Repeated serious sexual offending on young people
• Described by the sentencing Judge as a gross breach of trust